How Tech-Twisted Beauty Is Warping Our Reality—And One Artist’s Disturbing Portraits Lay It Bare
Meet Gretchen Andrew, the techie-turned-artist using AI and paint to reveal uncomfortable truths about digital beauty in 2025.
- Over 70% of smartphone users apply filters or edits to selfies, according to 2025 data.
- AI-powered beauty apps like Facetune now surpass 200 million downloads globally.
- Gretchen Andrew’s latest series won the Acquisition Award at Untitled Art Miami Beach.
- Major museum acquisition pending for Andrew’s “Facetune Portraits” series.
Picture this: a world where the faces and bodies flooding your feed don’t actually exist. Digital wizardry has replaced reality; AI distorts not just images but our very understanding of beauty. At the cutting edge of this unsettling revolution stands Gretchen Andrew—an ex-Silicon Valley engineer who’s now shaking up the art world, exposing how technology messes with our perception of self.
Andrew’s latest project, “Facetune Portraits: Universal Beauty,” isn’t just art—it’s a wake-up call. Using AI, phone apps, robots, and oil paint, she peels back the curtain on how “perfect” bodies dominating Instagram, TikTok, and even your Zoom calls are manufactured illusions. And the results are both mesmerizing and deeply unsettling.
Q: Who is Gretchen Andrew and Why Is Her Work Making Headlines?
Gretchen Andrew is a unique force—she codes, she paints, and she sets the art world abuzz with her tech-savvy insights. Since leaving software engineering behind, Andrew has become a recognized voice on the intersection of AI, technology, and art, writing for top outlets like The Art Newspaper and collaborating with creative robotics leaders like Matr Labs.
Her “Facetune Portraits” snagged the spotlight in Miami and New York and continues to stir debate about authenticity, technology, and beauty across continents.
How Does Andrew Create Her AI-Enhanced Portraits?
First, she selects real photographs of Miss World beauty pageant contestants. Then, with apps like Facetune and Body Tune—tools that millions use to boost their digital looks—Andrew creates “improved” AI-altered versions. But she doesn’t stop at pixels. Those images become real, wet oil paintings, printed by machine and then attacked by a robot armed with a brush.
This robot—guided by the precise differences between genuine and enhanced—carves chaotic lines where AI has “improved” the body, making the results deliberately awkward and jarring. Instead of the seamless filters we’re used to, these pieces are scarred, their “unreal” beauty physically visible in messy paint strokes.
Are Facetuning and Filters Really Such a Big Deal in 2025?
Absolutely. What began as a teen trend on TikTok has exploded into a cultural phenomenon. Algorithms that reshape faces and bodies hide in everyday tech—your favorite chat apps, your phone camera, even video calls. The message is brutal: “perfection” isn’t just unattainable, it’s algorithmically enforced.
Andrew argues that this isn’t a niche concern. It’s reshaping how billions see themselves—especially young people who may not understand when or how images become manipulated.
Check out the extent of this trend as covered by BBC and Reuters.
Q: What Is Andrew Really Trying to Say with Her Art?
Her portraits aren’t just about beauty—they’re a protest. The clash between authentic and AI-perfect bodies in her work reveals the scars of constant digital editing. She sees AI as increasingly dull—flattening differences into sameness, and turning digital spaces, and now even art, into bland repetition.
Her message resonates far beyond the gallery walls: It’s time to face the consequences of chasing perfection powered by AI.
How Can YOU Spot, Challenge, and Rise Above AI-Driven Beauty Trends?
- Learn to recognize digitally-altered images—look for odd lines, mismatched shadows, too-perfect skin.
- Talk to teens and kids about what’s real vs. what’s curated and altered online.
- Support creators, artists, and platforms prioritizing authenticity over algorithmic sameness.
- Experiment with “no filter” days—celebrate and share the unretouched reality!
Ready to see through the digital illusion? Challenge yourself and your community with the checklist below!
- Spot a digitally-altered image on your feed—share it with a friend and discuss what’s real.
- Host a “real beauty” challenge: post zero-filter photos for a week.
- Visit local or online art shows tackling tech and authenticity (like those at MOMA).
- Stay curious—explore how tech shapes culture and how you can shape it in return.
Unmask the reality behind the filter. Embrace what makes you authentically YOU—online, and off.